DavidBrown
Member
Interesting article in the Express and Echo.
Going through them induvidually;
Newcourt and Monkerton have been proposed for a while as part of the East of Exeter masterplan, and I'd guess that the costs of these stations would be largely paid for by the developers, so these are more likely to go through so long as the adjacent developments do aswell. Newcourt also has the bonus of being a shorter walk from Sandy Park stadium than Digby & Sowton is, so if Exeter Chiefs manage to keep themselves up in the Premiership for the next few years, the case for Newcourt is even stronger.
Exmouth North sounds like a bizarre idea to me. There's not all that much of Exmouth to the north of the station - there's a small amount of housing which is within a 5 minute walk of the existing station anyway, and the bulk of the housing and employment areas are to the east of the town anyway - well away from the railway line. And it's not as if there's much potential for development in that part of town anyway - the estuary is protected and I imagine that any green belt land next to the railway will be aswell. That'll never see the light of day.
Marsh Barton is a station that I'm amazed hasn't been built yet. There is a huge amount of employment there, which the Devon Metro would link to the city centre and significant residential areas. There's plenty of land by the railway to build a station, and it would be dead easy to link into the existing road, cycleway and bus networks. there's also the fact that the roads in Marsh Barton estate are terrible and very heavily congested, so the train will be a no brainer for thousands of people.
With Exminster, there's too much distance between the village and the railway for a station to be much use. You'd also be building on or very near to the marshes, so costs are likely to be high, especially all the associated infrastructure. You'd also be running the risk of having too many local stops on the mainline, so unless you want to delay high speed services, you'd probably need 4 tracks (like at Dawlish Warren), which would make the costs skyrocket, and give extremely poor value for money.
Kingskerswell, whilst it would be one of the quieter stations on the Metro, would represent very good value for money. The platforms are still in place from the old station, and whilst they may well need rebuilding, it shows that no earthworks or trackworks are needed. All you need to do is bring the platforms up to standard and link them to the road - cheap and cheerful and good value for money. I also happen to think that their passenger estimates are a bit low (though I am aware that they tend to be for new station openings), and even their upper estimate of 359 a day gives an annual figure of over 130,000, which by Devon's standards is very good for a small village station.
Edginswell is a new idea on me, but it does make complete sense, serving Torbay hospital, a large retail area and a good amount of housing. Given that Edginswell is also where the proposed A380 Kingskerswell Bypass would terminate, it could potentially make an excellent Park and Ride site for Torquay and Paignton.
So what do others make of this lot? And what would you propose for the Exmouth-Paignton service? The problem for the service as a whole is that some of the station platforms are very, very short (St James' Park and Exton spring immediately to mind), and the Exmouth Branch is only single line (albeit with the Topsham loop), so either longer trains or more frequent trains would require significant trackworks.
Going through them induvidually;
Newcourt and Monkerton have been proposed for a while as part of the East of Exeter masterplan, and I'd guess that the costs of these stations would be largely paid for by the developers, so these are more likely to go through so long as the adjacent developments do aswell. Newcourt also has the bonus of being a shorter walk from Sandy Park stadium than Digby & Sowton is, so if Exeter Chiefs manage to keep themselves up in the Premiership for the next few years, the case for Newcourt is even stronger.
Exmouth North sounds like a bizarre idea to me. There's not all that much of Exmouth to the north of the station - there's a small amount of housing which is within a 5 minute walk of the existing station anyway, and the bulk of the housing and employment areas are to the east of the town anyway - well away from the railway line. And it's not as if there's much potential for development in that part of town anyway - the estuary is protected and I imagine that any green belt land next to the railway will be aswell. That'll never see the light of day.
Marsh Barton is a station that I'm amazed hasn't been built yet. There is a huge amount of employment there, which the Devon Metro would link to the city centre and significant residential areas. There's plenty of land by the railway to build a station, and it would be dead easy to link into the existing road, cycleway and bus networks. there's also the fact that the roads in Marsh Barton estate are terrible and very heavily congested, so the train will be a no brainer for thousands of people.
With Exminster, there's too much distance between the village and the railway for a station to be much use. You'd also be building on or very near to the marshes, so costs are likely to be high, especially all the associated infrastructure. You'd also be running the risk of having too many local stops on the mainline, so unless you want to delay high speed services, you'd probably need 4 tracks (like at Dawlish Warren), which would make the costs skyrocket, and give extremely poor value for money.
Kingskerswell, whilst it would be one of the quieter stations on the Metro, would represent very good value for money. The platforms are still in place from the old station, and whilst they may well need rebuilding, it shows that no earthworks or trackworks are needed. All you need to do is bring the platforms up to standard and link them to the road - cheap and cheerful and good value for money. I also happen to think that their passenger estimates are a bit low (though I am aware that they tend to be for new station openings), and even their upper estimate of 359 a day gives an annual figure of over 130,000, which by Devon's standards is very good for a small village station.
Edginswell is a new idea on me, but it does make complete sense, serving Torbay hospital, a large retail area and a good amount of housing. Given that Edginswell is also where the proposed A380 Kingskerswell Bypass would terminate, it could potentially make an excellent Park and Ride site for Torquay and Paignton.
So what do others make of this lot? And what would you propose for the Exmouth-Paignton service? The problem for the service as a whole is that some of the station platforms are very, very short (St James' Park and Exton spring immediately to mind), and the Exmouth Branch is only single line (albeit with the Topsham loop), so either longer trains or more frequent trains would require significant trackworks.
